This invention relates to ski poles and ski pole grips, and particularly to the provision of a timepiece sealingly and resiliently mounted thereon.
It has been known in the past to provide ski pole grips with timepieces, such as watches or stopwatches, mounted on the grip with externally accessible buttons or other control devices connected by movable mechanical linkages with the timepieces for selectively controlling the time display. Such prior art devices are shown, for example, in the following publications:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,302
U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,444
U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,766
U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,340
U.S. Design Pat. No. 248,985
French Pat. publication No. 2,578,074
West German Pat. publication No. 2638671 A principal problem of all of these prior art structures is that the externally accessible buttons or other control devices, and their movable mechanical linkages to the timepieces, provide avenues through which moisture encountered in the skiing environment can gain access to the timepiece and interfere with its proper operation. Another problem is that the buttons or other control devices are too small for a skier to manipulate with a gloved finger or fingers, or are too complicated to enable economical manufacture.
What is needed, therefore, is a ski pole grip having a timepiece which is effectively sealed against exposure to moisture despite the fact that it is also selectively controllable by the skier to change its time display. Moreover, the selective control mechanism should be capable of easy manipulation by a skier's gloved finger, and be of a simple, economical construction.